Michael’s Remedy’s RX

Michael Kani spent two years working in a big box chain pharmacy before growing frustrated and deciding to open his own, radically different pharmacy on Saskatoon’s east side.

Kani describes Michael’s Remedy’s RX, which opened its doors earlier this month, as a small-town pharmacy: small, community-oriented, and based on strong relationships between pharmacist and patients.

“With the big chains, often they are focused mostly on numbers … How many prescriptions can you get out of a given day often became the target,” said Kani, who grew up in Ghana before immigrating to Canada several years ago.

“What I’m doing now is mainly just focused on literally developing relationships with my patients which, in the big box stores, you don’t often get. (There) you just become a number, where you go in and pick up your prescription and that’s it.”

Kani, who opened the Slimmon Road shop with the help and support of his wife, said while relationships between pharmacists and their patients are sometimes overlooked, they can and do yield positive results.

Knowing a patient and their family allows a pharmacist to make better, more well-informed decisions about medication while spending time integrating patients’ treatment and lifestyles.

“As bad as it may be for my business, I want to have people take less medications and focus on their lifestyle — things we can do to actually get them off of their medications if they don’t necessarily need to be on them,” he said.

One of the drugs Kani plans to teach people about is medical marijuana — a professional interest stemming from his fascination with pain and pain treatment. Michael’s isn’t a dispensary, but it’s important for people to know their options, he said.

“I’m probably the only pharmacist (in Saskatoon) who does this.”

Kani said while there are always challenges associated with building a new business, especially one as dependent on a client base as a pharmacy, he can’t help but enjoy his new-found feeling of freedom.

“As an independent owner, because it is my bottom line, I get to make the decisions. I get to practise pharmacy the way I want to practise, as opposed to having to answer to someone at head office.”

Related

Atma Gill is the general manager of Saskatoon’s first Freshii location, which opened on Broadway Avenue earlier this month. Gord Waldner /
Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Freshii

Atma Gill and his business partners decided to open Saskatoon’s first Freshii restaurant after growing tired of their hourly-wage jobs and deciding to capitalize on a growing trend in fast food: quick, healthy meals.

Gill, who grew up in Punjab, India, before moving to Canada in 2009, spent two years eating at the chain when he lived in Ottawa, and said a friend who ran several Freshii restaurants in Calgary urged him to give it a try.

“The living is, like, so expensive,” the 32-year-old entrepreneur said of his decision to buy a franchise. “You can’t do anything working (for) hourly wages. You have to think for the future.”

Freshii was founded in Toronto 11 years ago by Matthew Corrin, who, according to the company’s website, was inspired while eating at delis in New York City. The chain expects to have 300 restaurants in 20 countries by the end of the year.

Its menu contains a diverse array of dishes, from rice bowls and wraps to chilies and burritos. Gill said the environmentally-conscious chain aims to serve “fresh food designed to energize people on the go.”

The chain also takes pains to cater to vegetarians, vegans and people with allergies, Gill said.

“The global mission is to make the citizens of the world live better by making healthy food convenient and affordable,” he said, noting that the chain’s rapid expansion suggests the plan is working.

Gill said he expects the Broadway Avenue restaurant, which opened this month, to succeed because people are increasingly aware of the food they consume. He said the owners are already considering a downtown location.

“I am so excited,” he said of his transition from hourly-wage worker to independent entrepreneur. “Starting, it is stressful, but it pays out … It is worth taking the risk.”

Freshii

If you have started, expanded or moved a small business in Saskatoon within the last few months, contact Alex MacPherson at 306-657-6210 or amacpherson@postmedia.com. Home-based and temporary businesses, as well as those without physical locations, will not be considered for publication.

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